Author name: Beth Price

A high-quality human resources CV will showcase how you as an individual are best qualified for the position in which you are applying for. A well-written CV will help you to stand out from the bank of other candidates. First things first, let’s begin with the basics of what makes a good CV. Your CV needs to cover all your relevant experience, and educational qualifications as well as any achievements and some general information about your best qualities. Try to keep your CV at two pages maximum, as any more pages can be off-putting for a recruiter to read. More importantly, have all the essential information you wish to communicate with the recruiter on the first page. This will assist the recruiter in spotting why you could be a great candidate for the role with no fuss. Your CV is all about providing the employer or recruiter with a great first impression of who you are, and your potential to fulfil the needs of the job role. The key to a successful HR CV is to demonstrate that you have read the job description by highlighting keywords outlined in the description on your CV. A useful tip when writing your CV is to keep sentences to the point, and short. This will showcase your excellent communication skills which is a desirable necessity for a role in HR. On top of this, it also makes the CV easy to read for the recruiter. When writing an HR CV, you need to include a clear headline statement, which is no longer than 200 words long. This statement will focus on your current position and highlight the main achievements you have made which are relevant to the HR role you are applying for. Top tip: Place your contact details somewhere clear on the page to encourage recruiters to get in touch with you. Next, you need to ensure the CV involves a clear experience summary. Subheadings and bullet points will be a useful tool to make use of in this section, as they will help you to clearly indicate your experience, responsibilities and achievements. Remember to include the business name, your job title as well and the dates you worked in the role. Your work experience should be ordered from the most recent and work backwards from here. Final Thoughts It is vital in an HR CV that you can showcase your career progression over the years. Remember to use keywords mentioned in the job description directly on your CV to draw the recruiter’s attention to why you are a good fit for the role. It may also be a good idea to write about your future career ambitions, and how the role in which you are applying aligns with these roles. This will help the recruiter to see you as not only a qualified candidate but someone who will grow with the business. We offer plenty of resources to help you write your perfect CV, get in touch with us to find out more, or check out our resources here.

There has been a lot of talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion in recruitment recently, and it’s something that a growing number of businesses are paying attention to. According to a recent report, 85% of employers say that increasing diversity in their workplace is a priority. However, 46% of employers don’t currently have a programme in place to help them attract diverse candidates. Though a lot of employers know that prioritising diversity and inclusion in recruitment is important, close to half are still without a plan to do so. This could be holding them back. The Advantages of Diversity and Inclusion in Recruitment There are a number of benefits that come with having a diverse and inclusive workforce, as a lot of employers are coming to realise. By creating a team of people from different backgrounds, a business can gain access to a wide variety of perspectives, views and opinions. This isn’t always the case when everyone has had a similar upbringing and life experiences. By recruiting a diverse range of employees, a business also becomes more creative and innovative and has the ability to embrace new opportunities. With a wider range of people, the team is likely to have a wider range of skills, abilities, and talents. It has also been proven that diversity can lead to increased productivity and happier employees. How to Embrace Diversity and Inclusion in Recruitment To truly embrace the benefits of a diverse workforce, businesses need to recruit in a way that attracts a wide range of candidates. This means embracing candidates of all genders, disabilities, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This also means addressing unconscious bias among staff and ensuring that everyone gets a fair chance at securing the role. Unconscious bias is when someone makes an assumption about a candidate based on their age, gender or background. These things are not related to the role, but they could prevent someone from getting the job due to unfair bias. To build a diverse workforce, employers need to counter unconscious bias and make decisions fairly. There are a range of ways to do this, such as removing certain information from CVs. It’s a lot harder to pass judgement on the suitability of a candidate without their name, gender or address. It’s also harder to be biased against someone if you don’t know the name of the school they went to, only the grades they achieved. Unconscious bias can also be tackled by having a wide range of stakeholders assess CVs, taking a number of perspectives into account on how suitable a candidate is. There is no denying the benefits of having diverse employees, which is why hiring managers, recruiters and employers need to embrace inclusion and start to build a diverse workforce. If you are looking to improve the diversity of your team get in touch with Dovetail HR today.

Regardless of the industry that you work in, you need to invest time into building your personal brand, and LinkedIn is a key part of doing so. A lot of people are unsure how to market themselves, but it’s an important process for getting a new job. This is where your LinkedIn profile comes in. LinkedIn is a great way to showcase your skills, abilities and experience, and it’s a way to network with other people in your industry. We’ve put together some advice to help your boost your LinkedIn for maximum impact. Top Ways to Boost Your LinkedIn Profile  Choose a Good Profile Picture – Your LinkedIn profile picture is one of the first things that someone will see of you, and first impressions really do count. You should make sure that the picture is recent, and that it looks like you, and your face should take up a lot of the image. You should avoid photographs that are taken from far away, and ensure that you are wearing professional workwear.   Your Headline Should Be More Than a Job Title – A lot of people simply put their job title in their LinkedIn headline, but you should use this space to describe your role in more detail and highlight what makes you stand out as a professional. It’s an opportunity for you to sell yourself.   Tell a Story With Your Summary – Use your summary to tell the story of your career, and really highlight the journey that you have been on. Instead of simply listing your skills and previous job titles, focus on why your skills matter and how your experience can make a difference to a business. Be sure to include keywords which recruiters can utilise to find your profile.   Grow Your LinkedIn Network – It’s important to grow your LinkedIn network, as this will connect you to relevant people within your industry. By synching your email address book, LinkedIn will suggest people that you could connect with, reminding you of people that you have worked with before, or those who are in your industry. It’s also a good idea to follow up meetings and conversations with LinkedIn requests, as this will keep your network up to date.   Take Skills Assessments – When you take a skills assessment on LinkedIn you are showcasing your abilities with proof. According to a study, you are 30% more likely to be hired for a role if you display proof of your abilities on your LinkedIn profile. You can retake the skills assessments on LinkedIn a number of times, and displaying your results is voluntary. So, you only need to show the assessment results that are impressive.   As you can see, there is a lot that goes into improving your LinkedIn profile, but it’s a worthwhile task. A good LinkedIn profile can make you stand out to recruiters, hiring managers, employers and industry experts, and it works as a sort of online CV. When your LinkedIn profile successfully highlights your strengths and skills, you are more likely to secure your dream job. If you are interested in hearing more about how to improve your LinkedIn profile to secure your job contact Dovetail.